Question: How can a spiritual directorate replace you, a Kabbalist, who gives people a sensation of the upper world?

Answer: The spiritual directorate deals with clarifying current issues related to advertising, dissemination, studies, and the functioning of our organization, that is, the framework we exist within. It does not deal with the spiritual fulfillment that I give to the students, nor with the knowledge that I reveal to them every day.

The spiritual directorate cannot replace me as a professional, as a teacher. However, it can, and already does, replace me in all decisions concerning the development of the organization and the group so that there are no arbitrary corporeal decisions or deviations.

These are ordinary people, students who are more or less capable of looking objectively at themselves and the group, and of making decisions, not with clouded eyes, but by rising above themselves toward a collective decision.

They understand that whatever the decision may be, if it is collective, it is higher than even the smartest and most brilliant individual decision, because within it the Creator is present. He is the one who truly governs the world and the group. In an individual, egoistic, even if brilliant decision, the Creator is absent, and therefore it is doomed to fail.

Ordinary people do not yet understand this, especially now, when a global system is beginning to reveal itself in the world and the structure of reality is gradually becoming clear: first through human society, then through ecology, and later through the entire vast universe.

The universe is beginning to appear as a single, complete system of inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human nature. However, we do not know what to do with it because we have no tools to work with such a system. In fact, this system is the most important because it alone governs everything.

In other words, the world is governed by the collective as a whole system. Have you noticed how a school of fish turns in water, all at once, not one leading and the others following, but all together, a whole mass, sometimes hundreds of thousands moving as one? Birds behave the same way.

This example shows the upper governance, not when one makes a decision and others follow, but when the wholeness of the group itself governs. Therefore, I exist not to lead you forward, but so that you form such wholeness. And then, among you, the Creator will be revealed, and He will lead you forward.

Moses was great in that he led the people, yet the Creator went before him, as a pillar of fire at night and as a cloud pillar by day.

A teacher is needed to gather everyone into a collective so that within the group, or even within all humanity, the force called “the Creator” will be revealed, the force that holds everything together, the general force of nature.

It is called the force of bestowal and love because only through this quality can people unite. And when it is revealed, everyone will turn in the same direction simultaneously, feeling themselves as one single body. Then all will understand how reality is structured, and to the extent that they are able to unite, the force of the Creator will be revealed.

Therefore, if the spiritual directorate resolves issues collectively, it will certainly succeed, whereas a single “clever individual” never will.

Question: How can we unite so that the upper force will dwell within us?

Answer: Prefer the collective opinion over your own. This opinion is gradually formed by the friends through discussion, by comparing their goals, plans, capabilities, and analyses with what is written in the sources, and for this, it is enough to know a few of the simplest principles.

Any group can do this if it is capable. Unfortunately, there are many “clever” individuals who understand the material very well, but cannot yet get to a collective approach. Therefore, they are not part of the spiritual directorate.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Meaning of Spiritual Direction” 9/11/10

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Comment: When someone asks you a question via Skype or in person, that is one kind of energy. But when a crowd is sitting in front of you and they ask you a question, it is a completely different energy, as if piercing needles or a crushing weight.

My Response: Of course, because it is an enormous force, an enormous desire. How can the egoism of one small, insignificant little person be compared with the egoism of such a vast, base, egoistic mass as my students at the lesson?

On one hand, they are coarser, more disillusioned, more empty, and on the other hand, are intensely directed toward the goal. Ultimately these forces combine and reinforce each other.

And most importantly, the questions are asked collectively; all the vectors of desires converge and intertwine.

Naturally, this is a completely different kind of clarification. How can one person be compared with the masses? Next to them, you are an angel.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Questions in a Lesson” 9/29/10

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Question: If the spiritual leadership cannot replace you as the Kabbalah teacher, then who can do it?

Answer: The Creator, who will be revealed between you if you remain together. But if you do not remain together, you will fall apart. That is all.

The role of the spiritual leadership is to call for unity. It cannot issue commands; it can only determine and say: “We must unite, we must unite.”

If you heed its words, the Creator will reveal Himself within your unity and you will learn from Him and from no one else.

There is not a single one of my students who can replace me. Only together, as equals.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. In the union” 9/11/10

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Comment: It sometimes happens that a person at the initial stage of studying Kabbalah has questions for you, and even though he does not ask them, he feels that he is receiving answers from you.

My Response: Of course. In general, people who are near me say: “Our questions disappear.” This is natural. Because when they are near, they include themselves in me like a small one beside the great, and then they feel safe, as if in some kind of shelter, and no questions arise for them. Indeed, that is so.

Question: Do you fulfill the person?

Answer: I do not fulfill them. Rather, they fill themselves with the fact that they are attached to me and feel me. Thus, he slightly feels that inner balance, calmness, and fullness that exist in me.

And although I myself am in a certain internal restlessness, on his level and even a few levels above, I am in a completely resolved, calm state.

He does not perceive my higher level but the one at which he interacts with me, like a child with parents. Parents have problems and concerns, but next to them, the child feels calm. He does not feel the level of their restlessness, but feels on an animate level that they are guarantors of his balance and security.

Comment: And then he goes out into the world and is surprised that it is not at all as he thought.

My Response: Yes, naturally. But still, this is good for advancement. I remember my states next to my teacher when you are in a state of absolute perfection and utter tranquility, yet you are compelled to  cultivate needs and desires for spiritual development within yourself.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Difficulties of Translation” 9/12/10

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How should I relate to the group correctly? The group must help me understand this and give me the strength to change myself. The group must do everything. It is like the Creator.

But the group must hold one more idea. It demands this from me not so that we would give to one another and live well like in a hobby club.

It must have a clear goal; we do all this not for the convenience of our stay here but in order to become similar to the Creator, to achieve adhesion with Him. Then everything will succeed.

But if we do not have this goal, we will fail as it happened in Soviet Russia and in our Kibbutzim. Baal HaSulam writes about this in the article “The Peace.”

To the extent that we are able to build a group and establish it in the correct form in relation to ourselves, to that extent it will serve us in place of all the means we lack for attaining the goal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Creation of the World Was by Largess?”

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Question: You often say that a conversation can happen in silence, from heart to heart. Can you explain what it means to “speak with the heart”?

Answer: Through feelings. When you want to convey your feelings to someone, but it is very difficult to find the right words, then the best thing is if you remain silent.

And neither person feels uncomfortable. You simply stay silent. And in this way, gradually, little by little, you begin to understand one another without words. This is what is called “a conversation between hearts.”

Question: You said that you often sat in silence with your teacher. Did you ever feel that you needed to say something?

Answer: No, absolutely not. You just sit and think beside him, and he does the same.

Question: And he did not prompt you to say something? Nothing like that?

Answer: No, there was no need. Nothing was needed. These are such feelings, such moments, when everything is understood. And an inner connection takes place, a flow of feelings from one to the other and back again, without words.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 10/29/23

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There are three conditions for spiritual work in a group.

First, “make yourself a Rav.” A Rav (teacher) is someone greater than me who gives me direction. What he says defines my path. While giving directions, he must always give a student a certain amount of freedom, appear weak, sometimes confused, and sometimes contradict himself. This provides the student with obstacles, various doubts and thoughts about whether the teacher is right; this leaves the student room to perform the action “make for yourself a Rav.”

Second is “buy yourself a friend.” I have to find people who, just like me, go through the same process along with me, and through my investment in them, I will gain strength from them. Because I invested efforts into my friends, these forces become mine—I bought them; I acquired them.

And the third is “judge everyone to the scale of merit.” This means that when I see obstacles from various people, I must interpret it as coming from representatives of the Creator, who are meant to confuse me with various situations that are optimal for the gradual development of my soul toward the Creator.

Thus, there is a teacher before me, toward whom I must act according to the principle of “make yourself a Rav,” there are friends with whom I do work according to the principle of “buy yourself a friend,” and there is the external environment, the whole world, all the others, whom I judge to the scale of merit, to the fact that they themselves do not perform any action at all, but the Creator influences me through them. Thus, I see them only as puppets rather than as characters who are either guilty or righteous in their actions.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/26, Rabash, “Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 1”

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I feel like I am participating in a congress. On the very first day alone, 3,000 people attended, 800 of whom came from different countries, and another 3,500 connected virtually. Everyone says that the congress feels unusually serious and responsible.

So the most important thing is to maintain our concentration so that every aspiration is with the intention of achieving the effort in its true form.

I wish for all the participants to feel a connection in the center of the gathering, in the center of the congress. I hope that everyone will feel this, and that it will lead us forward, step by step.

It is very simple to do: simply annul yourself and raise all the participants to the heaven. There is no doubt that the Creator will be pleased with us.

When I studied with my teacher Rabash, I never dreamed of such a broad worldwide movement like Bnei Baruch involving thousands of people. I don’t feel that this was done by me; it was all done from above. There is none else besides Him. We must see the Creator at the center of our unity and desire only one thing: to thank Him for what He has done for us.

On one hand, I’m glad for what is happening today, but on the other hand, I am confident that we will reach such unity that each person will reveal that they are at the center of the circle, connected with everyone else. Within that connection we will receive everything we are meant to receive.

This is the peak of development: working for many years from morning to night and in the end to feel that you yourself have done nothing, but the Creator did everything. After all, you allowed the Creator to perform all the work through you. A person surrenders themselves to the Creator and allows Him to do everything for the development of the world through him. Ultimately, a person must see that in reality they did nothing, but the Creator did everything, and whatever comes to the person, they want to return everything back to the Creator.

You do everything the Creator wants you to do, but all this is due to the Creator. And the merit of a person is only this: to make oneself into a Kli worthy of the Creator.
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From a conversation at a meal on 2/19/26

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Question: Often the person asking a question is actually asking for the benefit of others. So they realize that they, too, have this question. How can we extract deeper information from you? How should a person be attuned when asking a question?

Answer: It does not depend on me or the person asking, but on the general level of those present, even those far away, on the Internet. When I feel the audience, I work for it; it determines the level at which I speak and even the style of presenting the material.

If there are more women sitting before me, I talk to them differently from how I talk to men. If the audience consists of new students, I naturally give a lecture as if for small children, using a soft, accessible language. For a more prepared audience, such as my longstanding students, the conversation will be brief, clear, and sharp.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Answer to Any Question” 9/12/10

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Comment: As is known, someone has to stand at the head of an organization—it is impossible to do without a leader. People need to believe in someone. Someone gives them an example, as you set an example to your students.

My Response: I think my students will understand that only together, in a powerful group that already includes tens of thousands of people, will they be able to achieve something. After all, a spiritual leader is not some individual person, but a common force, a common idea. Its bearer is the group that can unite and lead everyone forward.

In this case, we are not talking about an egoistic world, but about a world of unity, an altruistic world, in which the leader is the Creator. I think that I am the last one who, in some sense, is a spiritual leader in Kabbalah—a teacher and a disseminator who has many students.

My aspiration is to bring my students to a state where only their unity will lead them forward. Only unity!

And when they all become as one and form such an element that will lead them forward, when in their unity they will feel the Creator, then it will be He who will lead them forward, and not some tangible personality with a beard and glasses. Only this way! That is why I am trying to create a kind of stimulator within spiritual leadership.

That is, everything must be set up so that it will be the group! And if it is one person, then a second will appear, and a third, and everything will fall apart, as happened in the past in Hasidic and other movements. All of this led to the wrong path, and in the end everything disappeared.

Comment: But you have very strong students.

My Response: They are not strong in anything, absolutely! They are strong and powerful only from the point of view of egoism, and they should be feared. Precisely those who are considered advanced are in no way more spiritual than the others. On the level of our world, such people simply have a greater ability to persuade and to speak.

Because of this, one must not follow them!

I am warning you: Do not listen to any of my students individually! Instead of me, there can only be only a spiritual directorate. Under no circumstances either those close to me or those far from me. Only this way!

Whoever wants to organize separately, whoever has some kind of “creative itch,” let them go and open new communities. In a Kabbalistic society this cannot exist. Only a general assembly, at the head of which stands the spiritual directorate!
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Destruction of Laitman” 9/18/10

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